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It seems that Harry Potter will never go out of style at the library. Each generation produces a new group of readers, and along with the movies, they are constantly in circulation. It’s about to get exciting again.

Scholastic will release a fully illustrated version of HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE on October 6, 2015, will illustrations by Kate Greenaway Medal winner, Jim Kay. And just this week, the publishing house released several of the illustrations as a teaser. The one above is Hogwarts, of course. You can see the full images here.

Scholastic plans on releasing each book in the series in an illustrated version, one per year. If the rest of the illustrations are as gorgeous as these, you might want to invest in collecting the whole series again. I don’t think you’ll be sorry you did.

Another wonderful display by the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum has transformed our library space once again. Jennifer dropped by and changed out the case with fascinating “new” objects you just need to stop and look at! We always find these presentations to be so relevant and amazing…it’s hard to believe some of these objects sit in boxes, carefully preserved until Jennifer has a chance to use them again!

If you haven’t been to the library lately, stop by and take a few minutes to look in the big glass case. And bring the kids! There are plenty of wonderful items to look at a discuss. A great way to get in a little local history until the museum opens again!

Our month-long book sale was a great success! Many of you came in and went away with armloads of great used books, all for only 10 cents each! Well, we’re back to the normal price (25 cents each), and there’s plenty still on the shelves to be purchased.

A typical box of donated books. See the average size? Notice how full it is? This is just fine!

Many people ask where the books come from for our sale table. It’s a combination of discarded books (books that have been on our shelves that might be slightly damaged, no longer current, or we have a better copy)….and books that are donated. Of course we accept book donations! You’d be surprised at how many boxes arrive on our doorstep each week, especially during the warmer months. We’ll accept two boxes (of the sizes depicted here…please don’t fill up a refrigerator box and leave it on the front steps), as long as the books are in fairly decent condition (ie…no musty smell, no cigarette smell and no water damaged books, please).

Another perfectly good book donation! Notice the bags this time? That’s fine, if you don’t have boxes. Again, a reasonable amount of books here.

We don’t, however, accept textbooks, Reader’s Digest books or National Geographic magazines. While we understand someone paid good money for these things, we just cannot sell them. Then, we end up having to put them in our recycle bins or throw them away. Not what we want to do. Also, keep in mind, if YOU wouldn’t by a book because the condition is so poor (pages falling out, swollen to the size of ten books because it was dunked in water, smelling of must, cigarettes, spilled bottle of perfume etc.,) no one else will want to buy it either. Please discard those books at home.

Another box, perfect size, lots of great donations.

We love book donations. We go through each box and bag separately and use any books that we either don’t have or they can replace something we already have that might be in poor condition. If we can use it, a book will go on our shelves to circulate, probably within a few weeks. If we can’t use it, it will most likely go on the sale table. We’ll make 25 cents from it, which goes toward buying new books for the library, so it’s a great deal. If you DO drop off book donations, note that we cannot guarantee that anything you give to us will be put into the library circulation. You’re taking your chances…..so please don’t donate an entire catalog of your favourite books on the African Stinging Beetle and expect to see them on our shelves tomorrow. We may use them, we may not, but we appreciate ALL of the books that end up in our library for perusal. Our library wouldn’t be as successful as it is without them!

I’ve been using Pinterest now for quite a while. Not only do I love the whole idea of being able to see multiple items on one page, but it makes so much more sense to “pin” a great website to one of my boards than to constantly bookmark sites. I use Pinterest both in a personal manner, as well as professionally. And it seems that more and more librarians are using to make their library experience better.

If you haven’t used Pinterest before, it’s basically a big bulletin board where you “pin” on items you like, from anywhere on the internet. Once you ask to be added to Pinterest, you’re free to start pinning. So, say you’re on the National Geographic website and you see a great article you’d like to read later. Just “pin” it to one of your boards and you can access it any time. It’s visual, which makes it so much more interesting than bookmarks or favourites.

For work, I use Pinterest to get new craft ideas for my storytimes and craft nights, and also for ideas for bulletin boards and display windows. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve found there that are different and wonderful. It sure beats using Google to scan page after page of images, only to find nothing new. Pinterest is fresh and I can’t wait to use it in new ways!

But now, it seems that librarians from all over the North America are finding exciting ways to use Pinterest in their libraries to bring in more patrons, connect with their users and disperse information, all from these unique bulletin boards. Just how are they using Pinterest? Here are a few ways:

1. Pinning Book Covers. Librarians are putting together lists of books by genre or interest for their patrons. Book covers also show what a librarian might be reading, or what might be new to the library. It’s up to the library to decide how to use it, and the possibilities are endless.

2. Encouraging kids and teens to read. One libraryhas a special board dedicated to crafts, books and fun ideas based on hot new books for kids and teens, such as the Hunger Games. Teens can find great paper crafts or fun links to help broaden their experience with the book. Fun!

3. Displaying historical photos. While we have lots of historical photos on our Local History sister blog, this would also be a fun way to display items for people who might not regularly visit our blog. It’s also a way to draw in new users.

My husband is a collector. He has a myriad of collections, and adds to them when he spots something fascinating on his occasional jaunts to junk shops, flea markets or antique shops. Here is a unique little collectible that I’m sure he won’t be picking up any time soon (they’re $895 each!), but they certainly have charm and beauty!

Ducobi has created the world’s first collectible mother-of-pearl inlaid and laquered toy!

If you didn’t know,we have plenty of books at the library that will help you figure out if you’ve got something worth a few pennies, or a few million pennies, such as :

And if those don’t help, stop by the Antiques Roadshow website to view past episodes, see items they’ve valued or ask a question. Or shop online and find that rare item you’ve been looking for at Go Antiques or eBay. Just have fun with your collections and you’ll never be disappointed in their value!

Since 2005, We Feel Fine has been scouring the web every few minutes for blogs that contain the words “I feel” and “I am feeling”. It records the sentence that includes the words, and decides what the “feeling” can be grouped as (sad, happy etc.). From there, it can extrapolate a few things such as approximate age, gender, and geographical location, and then provide the weather in that area at the time. It then becomes part of a huge database of information which can be searched in a wide variety of ways.

When you visit the site, you can read all about the mission, see the book as it looks but the most fascinating thing is to try the interactive version. The little dots that scatter the page are not only pretty, but addictive as you click on each one to see what someone has posted.

So today…. I feel like weekends need just a few more hours. Just a few…..

Do you have a private library in your home? Jay Walker does. His library is stocked not only with interesting books, but also pieces of memorabilia from around the world. The most interesting thing about this library is that while he may have a few rare books, his collection is not made up of first editions like many collectors. His library is stocked with books that have either historical or educational significance, like Robert Hooke’s Micrographia, which was published in 1665 and was the first book to contain illustrations made possible by the use of the microscope.

Walker’s collection also features items like an original Sputnik 1 satellite that the Russians used as a backup, a chandelier used in the James Bond movie “Die Another Day”, and the original Thing hand used in the Addams family which is signed by the entire cast.

Walker had his home built entire around the library in order to accomodate his collection perfectly. If you’d like to see more of this library and read about his collection, please visit this site.